


Oh, Ye of So Little Faith

by merryghoul



Category: Rise - Katy Perry (Song)
Genre: Baseball, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 22:31:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18600706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merryghoul/pseuds/merryghoul
Summary: It’s the middle of the eighth inning and Sierra knows this game is on the line.





	Oh, Ye of So Little Faith

**Author's Note:**

  * For [facethestrange](https://archiveofourown.org/users/facethestrange/gifts).



Sierra Loterro’s pitcher called for a curveball. In that moment in the eighth inning, Sierra had the batter, Bruce Hooper of the Brooklyn Mutuals, on a 1-2 pitch—one ball, two strikes. The aim was to make Hooper swing at the curveball, miss, and record a strike to preserve the D.C. Federals’ 2-1 lead over the Mutuals. The win would’ve been huge for the Federals. Milburn Field was a tough place to get an away win.

Sierra threw the pitch. She saw it curling towards home plate.

To her dismay, the ball was hovering over home plate just enough for Hooper to connect. The ball was hit close to the center of the field and lodged itself just under where the audience in the outfield were watching the game.

The Federals could only watch as their lead disappeared from 2-1 to 2-3. The Federals failed to come back in the ninth inning and eventually lost the game.

 

Union League Baseball was founded to challenge Major League Baseball, just like the earlier Federal League challenged the state of baseball in its time. One of those challenges involved female baseball players playing at the same time as male baseball players. If Sierra was having a rough time on the mound, she knew the press and fans would scrutinize her. And yet the criticism stung. 

The baseball hot takes followed. Sierra’s name was the top trend on Twitter, beating out a recent United States political trend, several trends for a pay-per-view wrestling event, and some trends for a popular television show in the United States. The _Washington Post_ sports section ran a piece entitled “What’s going on with Sierra Loterro? Even she might not know the answer.” There were variants of that headline on other sports news sites: Sports Illustrated, The Ringer, Bleacher Report. A blog written by a Federals fan inquired, in bold towards the end of one specific post, **Can Sierra Loterro get out of her slump and retire a batter?** followed by “lol”. SportsCenter even had a segment devoted to her “streak” during their 6 PM Eastern show, the show that aired before their prime time sports offerings. 

None of these hot takes bothered Sierra. It would be the home fans’ response to her that would bother her the most.

 

The Federals’ home game against the Cleveland Blues, the second in a three game series, was tight—a 3-3 game. The Federals’ manager wanted a setup pitcher to pitch the eighth inning. The bullpen decided that Sierra was the perfect person for the job. Sierra stopped watching the game from the high chairs in the bullpen in the middle of the seventh inning. After doing a brief warmup, she threw a few pitches in the bullpen, to tune up her pitches. The Federals’ pitching coach, Keith Vetrovs, liked what he saw. “I’m putting you out next for the eighth,” Vetrovs said. “Rather have you out there than Stamenovic. Might need him for a lefty to lefty matchup.”

“Okay, Coach Vetrovs.”

With warmups done, it was time for Sierra to wait at the entrance between the bullpen and the field until the Dekter Stadium’s announcer called her name.

The music in Dekter Stadium, some current pop song, faded away. The announcer called for Sierra: “Number twenty-three, Sierra Loterro. Number twenty-three.”

The D.C. Federals’ sound system started playing the chorus to Katy Perry’s “Roar,” Sierra’s walkup song. Sierra walked from the bullpen. It didn’t feel right to ride the bullpen cart to the mound. Besides, the home crowd was already booing her.

The Federals had a promotion for its pitchers known as the Hoover Pen, a play on the building the Federal Bureau of Investigation was located in, the J. Edgar Hoover Building, and a bullpen. The promotion included a special shirt, a “K” sign for a strikeout, and special ticketing to one area of the ballpark.

Someone draped a white fabric sign with crude lettering in black spray paint over the promotion’s sign in that area of the ballpark. The sign read “The Vulture Pit.” Felt appropriate, since every booing Federals fan, as well as the opposition Blues fans cheering Sierra on, felt like ravenous vultures, ready to swarm over her if she blew this current tie. But she had to maintain her concentration. There was no time to listen to the jeers, no time to react to that sign. She had a tie to maintain. 

Sierra arrived at the mound. “Roar” stopped playing. The player on the mound, Peter Keane, the Blues’ shortstop, stepped up to the plate. Danielle Baig, her catcher, gave her a sign for a pitch. It was time to begin.

Sierra went into her pitcher’s stance, rolling the ball around in her right hand, Danielle’s call was for a low pitch. Sierra threw a low pitch over the plate. Peter didn’t attempt to hit the pitch. The umpire called for a strike. It felt like Sierra was on her way to striking Peter out. To her horror, the next three pitches she threw went far left, left, and right of the strike zone, the third pitch nearly hitting Peter. The pitch count went from 0-1 to 3-1. Sierra took a breath. She threw a fastball. Peter swung at the pitch. The pitch count was now 3-2. Sierra knew the next pitch she was going to throw was a strike.

It was a ball. Peter walked to first. The jeers grew louder.

Things didn’t get better when the next batter, the Blues’ right outfielder, came up to the plate. All of her throws didn’t make it across home plate, going wide to the right. After the right outfielder was unintentionally walked, Sierra hit the next player in the batting order. The bases were loaded.

This was it. This was her chance to be beyond the archetype, to not be lumped alongside relievers like Connie Grob, a Washington Senators reliever so bad he only played for one season before that incarnation of the Senators moved to Minnesota. The fire was really at her feet right now, with the bases loaded and no outs recorded, not yet. 

A chant grew as the Federals’ manager, Erik Allison, stepped on the field. “Out of time!” the home fans yelled. “Out of time! Out of time!” The crowd’s chant started from a seating section near the home bullpen and spread throughout the home seating areas. But it wasn’t all “out of times” around Dekter Stadium. Some lone voices, and at least one sign, read “Final nail’s in, Loterro.” It was still equally painful to see and hear.

The rest of the team in the infield—she colloquially referred to all of the team as her angels, and the ones in the infield the infield angels—went up to the mound. “Should I take you out, Sierra? Your choice, if you think you have this.”

“I’ve got this.”

“You sure? Stamenovic’s warming up in case you need someone to relieve you.”

“I’ve got this, Coach.”

Erik nodded. “This is your last chance, Loterro. A run comes in and I’m taking you out. I walk out on the mound and it’s over. All right, let’s go.”

The infield walked back to their positions. Erik went back to the bullpen. Sierra went back to the mound, the flames of holding or stopping the batters on the bases at her feet. The home fans booed loudly. 

Sierra held the ball in her hand, rolling it, anticipating when she was going to grip the ball again for Danielle’s call. For this batter, Kristin Venezia, the Blues’ pitcher, it was the same call—curveball. And Kristin was a challenge, too. She was known as a “pitcher who rakes;” a pitcher that not only threw the ball, but could occasionally hit the ball well, too. Once Kristin even hit a home run. Tonight, though, Kristin was not hitting a home run. Sierra was going to make sure she struck out, even in this sea of boos.

Sierra’s first two attempts at the pitch were balls, far left of the strike zone. Her third attempt landed low in the strike zone without Kristin swinging but with the umpire loudly proclaiming a strike among the boos. Danielle changed the pitch call, giving out signals for a fastball. One attempt went wide of the strike zone again. The other attempt went across the base. The pitch count quickly went up to three balls, two strikes. 

Danielle issued another pitch call for a low pitch. Sierra rolled the ball in her hand. Sierra threw the pitch. It was indeed low, and the pitch was in the strike zone. Kristin was out.

The jeers stopped and were being drowned out by cheers and applause. 

The next player at bat was the Blues’ catcher. When Sierra threw the pitch, Sierra was horrified—she thought it was too high for the ball to be hit. But the ball flew backwards. It was up to her angel Danielle now, if the ball stayed in the field and didn’t fly backwards into the stands.

The ball stayed in the yard. Danielle caught it. Two outs, and no one headed to home on the bases. The applause and cheers grew louder. Instead of the crowd chanting “Out of time!,” they were chanting “Let’s go Feds!” Sierra was getting closer. 

The next batter was the first baseman, Taylor Maniaci. Sierra was great with Taylor, causing her to swing at one low pitch and miss another while looking. Then Taylor hit a pitch. The baseball started arching into the field. The runners on the bases moved. Sierra looked at the ball, thinking that maybe this was it. This would be the moment she cost the Feds the game.

Or not, because the ball fell over to the Federals’ second baseman, her good angel Jordan Kassamali. She caught the ball in the infield. This half of this inning was over. There was wild cheering around Dekter Stadium.

 

Jordan would be the one to eventually win the game for the Federals. She hit a walkoff home run with a person on base for a final score of Blues three, Federals five. “Feels amazing to hit the winning run,” Jordan said to the Federals’ on field reporter for NBC Sports Washington. “But I couldn’t have done it without Sierra here.” Jordan grabbed Sierra and brought her in front of the NBC Sports Washington cameras. “Sierra calls us her angels whenever she’s pitching, ‘cause we help her get through the fire. Her pitching got us to the ninth inning and without her, we wouldn’t have won. When she rises, we all rise.”

A couple of Federals players grabbed a thermos filled with lemon lime Powerade. They dumped the Powerade on Jordan and Sierra. There were some things Sierra could defy, like the tale of the relief pitcher that had seen better days. But Powerade victory showers? Yeah, she couldn’t escape that.


End file.
